What are you currently reading? I'm reading Histories, just finished book 1...

What are you currently reading? I'm reading Histories, just finished book 1. Pretty fascinating stuff from a time period I never learned about in school.

Philebus - Plato

A bit disappointing. Went in expecting it to be ethics and good-life teaching, but has ended up being mostly ontology -- it's getting more ethical now though.

The Histories - Polybius

Great, aside from being incomplete (not all books are extant). A good history of the world at the time, but can be a slight slog.

While we're on the subject of arcane helenic literature, why not mention Plutarch?

Anyways, I'm reading The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki

Because I'm not reading him right now

Writing a paper on Gadamer's Truth and Method and his argument with Leo Strauss currently. After that, going to read The Recognitions and possibly some shorter philosophic work before the next semester starts. I was thinking Johann Huizinga's Homo Ludens.

Histories by whom, nigger? There isn't just one "History."

Which edition(s) are you using for Polybius? He's trickier than most to get in a decent copy.

THE JEWS

So Josephus or are you just being a fag?

The Oxford World's Classics edition, translated by Waterfield I think.

It contains all the complete books, plus 6 & 12.

Im reading about the Social War atm.

Not a bad choice. Depending on how much you enjoy it, consider picking up the entire extant text from Loeb, or at least the Penguin edition. Penguin's also isn't complete, but offers highlights of different chapters throughout the entire work, instead of offering the first few books in their entirety like Oxford.

Depending on how much primary source history you've read, Polybius may be tiresome as you read, but will have undeniable charm once you're done and look on him in hindsight. I hated reading him and only weeks and months later really started appreciating how much he had taught me, and how many cool stories and snippets of philosophy are peppered throughout the text. As far as historians of the ancient world go, he's my favorite "teacher" out of all of them, in that he doesn't just give you a chronicle, but tells you how to read and write history. Great for someone new to nonfiction.

Consider noting some passages you like as you read; I find that returning to them after I'm done with the (honestly often laborious) task of finishing the text itself helps me appreciate the historian in hindsight. One of my favorite Polybius passages is on the dangers of desiring wealth:

>For the thirst of the sufferer does not cease, and is never allayed by the administration of liquids from without, unless we cure the morbid condition of the body itself. So it is impossible to satiate the greed for gain unless we correct by reasoning the vice inherent in the soul.

PS Do yourself a favor and make sure you read Polybius' account of the destruction of Carthage. You can find a Loeb ebook for free pretty easily, and the story is among the most interesting scenes in ancient history, largely because Polybius was there to watch it happen. "A glorious moment, Polybius..."

Hope you enjoy the ride!

Cheers man. I do agree that their are some great moments in his work, such as when Hannibal asked and had two Celt prisoners fight to the death for freedom, to show his troops how dying in battle would be better than being taken prisoner.

I'll definitely be giving him a re-read, but I doubt I'll read it as one whole thing again, but rather read individual books or chapters.

What book is the destruction of Carthage in? I don't think it's in OWC's

Just don't take Herodotus as a credible source.

Am re-reading the Republic (for uni class) and CoL49 (for enjoyment).

Yeah little anecdotes like that are handy little reminders of what usually turn out to be big lessons to be drawn. Hannibal was huge on the "conquer or die" mantra.

Looks like book 38 for the fall of Carthage and the dissolution of the Achaean league (less dramatic, still important for the history, don't sweat it if you don't feel like reading about it). Just a handful of pages total because the chapter is largely lost, but enough survives to convey the lesson of guarding against the vicissitudes of fate and the rarity of people who actually remember to do so. Glance at the wiki page of the third punic war so you can see what the background is.

PS I think Polybius' tirade against reading partial histories, and in doing so failing to contextualize and therefore understand history, was in his first chapter. He wouldn't be pleased with us at the moment ;)

PPS Why Polybius? He's a great choice, but hardly a light read for fun.

I guess the Persian Wars never happened then

A journey round my skull
It's great.
Can't speak for the english translation,but it's great.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Finished off last week:
Utopia - Thomas More
The Outsider - Albert Camus

Going to start this week:
Metamorphosis and other stories - Franz Kafka
New Atlantis - Francis Bacon

I like this one

Have you read it in english?

It did.

But plz tell me more about how tales of fox-sized, gold-digging ants should be considered credible.

Jacob's Room, Woolf.

My least favourite book by her so far.

>aristotle-metaphysics
boring af 2bh pham but I've started with the Greeks so I might as well work through it.

>Dante-The Divine Comedy
Absolutely fantastic, better than I expected

>Umberto Eco-The name of the rose
It's p. good

Herodotus